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After complaints that Stanford University was at risk of violating students' First Amendment protections, school administrators agreed to pay the high cost of security for a controversial student-organized conference titled "Communicating Values" taking place next month.
The student group organizing the April conference, Stanford Anscombe Society, describes the event as a chance to "engage in intellectual and civil discourse about the issues of marriage, family and sexual integrity."
The American Conservative reported that the event will promote ideas in opposition to marriage equality for all sexual orientations, which is a hot-button topic on the Stanford campus. The speakers list for the event includes Robert Lopez, Kellie Fiedorek and Ryan Anderson, who are outspoken critics of marriage equality.
The university had earlier told SAS that the organization would have to pay for event security. Due to the provocative nature of the event and controversial nature of the speakers, the Stanford Department of Public Safety estimated that security would cost $5,600.
The Anscombe Society called the four-figure fee a "tax" on free expression, according to a column in The National Reviewwhere writer Mike Gonzales called Stanford University's student government and administration "remarkably intolerant — of activities that support traditional sexual ethics and marriage."
Brianne Huntsman, a student, told Campus Reform that "I feel really bad for the SAS members because they didn't want to come across as bigots but their message is very much bigotry."
But security wasn't the only funding controversy surrounding the conference.
The society first applied for funding from the Graduate Student Council in February, and the council allocated SAS $600.
That prompted students to complain that the university was funding "discrimination of a minority," the Stanford Daily reported.
At its next meeting, the council revoked the $600. One council member cited an "inclusivity clause" in the GSC Funding Guidelines that prohibits funding events or activities that "have an appearance or tone of exclusivity."
After the council pulled the funding, school safety officials announced the cost for security for the event.
Several organizations suggested that the university's actions discouraged free speech and therefore had First Amendment implications. It could also violate the Establishment Clause of the amendment. The non-partisan civil liberties organization Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said online that "blatant viewpoint discrimination is irreconcilable with the university's obligations to protect free speech."
The foundation said the school may have effectively censored free expression based upon the content of the speech, which is illegal. "Speech promoting what many students at Stanford consider discrimination (in this case, speech in opposition to same-sex marriage) is, without question, protected by the First Amendment," FIRE stated.
The Heritage Foundation articulated a similar legal argument and said the university was allegedly censoring SAS "simply because the university doesn't like its message."
FIRE sent a letter March 20 to Stanford President John Hennessey noting that the school is not only bound by the Constitution, but also by the Leonard Law, a California statue. It requires private schools like Stanford to comply with all constitutional free-speech guarantees that apply to public colleges and universities. The law exempts faith-based schools that may ban religious-oriented speech deemed contrary to the precepts of the religion.
That same day FIRE mailed its letter, Nanci Howe, associate dean of students and director of Student Activities and Leadership, alerted SAS in an email that the university "found more funds to subsidize the full cost of the security," according to the society's website.
Editor's note: The sixth paragraph of this article originally misidentified Brianne Huntsman. This has since been corrected.


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We've seen some stupid copyright laws in the past fifteen years, but Panama's new law — which has passed the legislature and merely awaits executive approval. Under Bill 510, the Panamanian copyright office has the power to pursue file-sharers directly, fining each one $100,000 ($200,000 on second offense) and keeping the money for itself, paying bonuses to apparats in the copyright office from the pot. Artists and copyright proprietors get none of that money, but they can also sue file-sharers if they want. Naturally, this bill was passed without public scrutiny, expert input, hearings, or public debate. As Technollama writes:
This is what I think will happen if the law passes as it stands. The DGDA will immediately try to monitor all torrent use in Panama, be it legitimate or not, and all people identified with IP addresses will be summoned and summarily fined. After all, the institution and its employees will have a direct financial incentive to assume guilt. Then those same people will be sent again and again, as there will be clear incentive to fine re-offenders.
This is a toxic piece of legislation any way you look at it, and we urge the Panamanian Congress to modify Chapter I of Title XII, or to remove it altogether.
Is Panama about to pass the worst copyright law in history? | TechnoLlama
(via Techdirt)

subset: commoncrawl


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I've been reading on non-standard scales such as the 19-tone equal temperament. I'd really like to try some of them out, but it turns out to be difficult. Adjusting a physical instrument would be a major hassle, so I'm looking for software.
Preferably I'd like to use the computer keyboard as input and have tones of a microtonal scale as output. Such software of course is abundant for the standard 12-TET. I don't care very much how the software works (MIDI, OSC etc) as long as I can "play" and hear sound real-time.
Can anyone point me to such software?


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Source: Blabbermouth.net
HELLYEAH's fourth studio album, "Blood For Blood", will be released on June 10 via Eleven Seven Music. The CD was helmed by producer Kevin Churko at his The Hideout Recording Studio in Las Vegas, Nevada. Churko is the Canadian musician, sound engineer, songwriter and record producer who has previously worked with OZZY OSBOURNE, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH and IN THIS MOMENT, among other acts.
"Blood For Blood" is the album that HELLYEAH — featuring MUDVAYNE's Chad Gray on vocals, PANTERA's Vinnie Paul Abbott on drums and NOTHINGFACE's Tom Maxwell on guitar — has always wanted to make. "It's a defining record for HELLYEAH and for anyone on the fence," Paul declared, describing the record as "focused and with a clear direction."
After roughly eight years, three albums, countless tours as headliners and as participants on "can't-miss" festival bills and hundreds of thousands of albums sold, HELLYEAH is making their biggest and boldest statement yet with "Blood For Blood". They are going for the jugular and every song on the album clamps down and doesn't let go. They've exchanged some of the party-centric, good time sounds of past efforts for pure metallic fury and emotional introspection. The album sounds like a recharged HELLYEAH, taken up many notches.
"Blood For Blood" is easily HELLYEAH's most metallic album. It leaves a mark, thanks to songs like the angular, vengeful "DMF". There's also "Demons In The Dirt", a beast of a song birthed by the sort of anger that can't be faked; it will leave you wondering who pissed these guys off. "Gift" is dirty, rowdy rock with equal parts groove and swagger, but also possessed of the sort of punk rock energy that would make MOTÖRHEAD fans turn their heads. Then there is moodier, more contemplative fare like "Moth To The Flame" or "Hush", which connect on an emotional, cellular level, proving that you can be incredibly heavy in ways other than loud and fast.
"We still have a love affair with this band and have a lot we want to say," explained Maxwell. He relished taking on a larger songwriting role and serving as the lead guitarist, which you can hear in the album's overall sound and in every note of his playing. "That magic is there for us, still. This is the record I've always wanted to make in this band, which has so many creative forces." Gray also shared that changes made the members closer. "We leaned on each other for support and inspiration," he said.
The band opted to work with an outside producer for the first time ever, recruiting Churko for the job. "To move forward, you have to make changes," said Paul, who wrote the music in Texas with Maxwell before heading to Hideout Recording Studio in Sin City to put it to tape.
"I am used to being a producer or co-producer and I wanted to see what would happen if I backed up and let someone take the reigns, leaving me to just be a drummer," said Paul, while admitting that vocals were the one area of production to which he couldn't do proper justice. The band was happy to allow Churko to provide a fresh perspective. Given Churko's resume, which is littered with names as diverse as OZZY OSBOURNE, IN THIS MOMENT and FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, the band knew he was the man who could pull the best performance possible out of Gray. The singer himself praised that Churko had a unique way of extracting what he wanted, saying, "You can be a drill sergeant and rule through intimidation or be laid back and cool, but get it done without pressure. He rules through cool."
Overall, the album has less of an obvious southern influence, with Paul deeming it "a metal record that also has melody.It lends itself to a diverse group of people."
As the mouthpiece for the band, Gray lets out his primal scream throughout the album, enabling him to properly and fully express his emotions in the music. "We want to shut people up a little, the people who have never given HELLYEAH the time of day, for whatever reason," the singer said. "Whether you want it or not, it's undeniable. This [album] is an every night fistfight." Gray shared that he firmly believes in music as therapy and revels in helping the band's fans achieve catharsis with the music they have created.
He acknowledged the fact that the album is devoid of the party anthems that previously populated the HELLYEAH catalog. "There is not a party song on this record, which we are kind of known for," he said. Gray continued "As much as I love those songs, they put us in a certain box that I've never been comfortable in since I'm not always like that." Instead, Gray and his bandmates wanted to show a depth, breadth and range of emotions and styles.
It was important for Gray to craft songs that were heavy on multiple levels at the same time. His approach was that heavy doesn't always mean as fast and as loud as possible. He said, "For me, personally, I was going through my emotional checklist, and how I wanted to be heavy both aggressively and emotionally. I need that balance." For example, the mercurial "Moth" examines our base, animal instincts and drives. Despite knowing something is bad for you and will burn you, you still can't pull yourself away from it.
"Black December" turns a critical eye on the year-end holiday season, and more deeply, the sadness that can permeate the end of the year. "It's a deadly month and depressing," Gray explained. "It's a hard month to get through with all the bullshit and commercialization. John Lennon and Dimebag Darrell were killed in December — that's like taking away things I need to live. I can't celebrate this whole December vibe."
For his part, Paul labeled his drumming on "Say When" as some of the most challenging of his career, going so far as to say he hasn't played like this since PANTERA's 1994 opus "Far Beyond Driven". "It's so off the chain, and I will be worn out every night when I play it," the kit minder said. While that may be bad for Paul, it's a very good thing for metal fans.
Maxwell also points to the more mainstream rock element of "Hush", which brings a sense of community to those who have had turbulent upbringings. The song is successful "at being heavy while being uplifting." That's not easy to do, but HELLYEAH make it seem and sound easy.
"Blood For Blood" marks a new chapter for HELLYEAH. They pushed themselves to new limits, dared to embrace change and to take risks with their music by just doing what comes naturally. Gray said it best: "The more you listen to it, the more it will open up to you."
HELLYEAH has finished filming a video for the song "Sangre Por Sangre (Blood For Blood)" with director Robert Sexton (SOULFLY, DEATH ANGEL, THE DWARVES, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, AMEN, MONDO GENERATOR, GENÖCIDE) in Hollywood, California. The track is the first single from "Blood For Blood". "Sangre Por Sangre (Blood For Blood)" will hit rock radio in April.
HELLYEAH recently parted ways with guitarist Greg Tribbett and bass player Bob "Zilla" Kakaha. Kakaha has since been replaced by Kyle Sanders, a former member of BLOODSIMPLE and the brother of MASTODON's Troy Sanders.
It's unclear if Tribbett will be replaced.
"Blood For Blood" track listing:
01. Sangre Por Sangre (Blood For Blood)
02. Demons In The Dirt
03. Soul Killer
04. Moth
05. Cross To Bier (Cradle Of Bones)
07. Gift
08. Hush
09. Say When
10. Black December


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BERLIN- Stephen Decatur's varsity wrestling team appears poised to continue its recent dominance this season with a new head coach at the helm and a strong crew of top wrestlers returning.
It should be business as usual this season with a few new twists added on with new coach Todd Martinek at the helm of the wildly successful varsity wrestling program. Martinek was named the new coach at Decatur late this summer after longtime coach Kevin Gilligan he was leaving as the head of the growing Seahawk wrestling dynasty to take a teaching job at a school in Calvert County.
Martinek brings an impressive resume to the table as he prepares his team for the 2011-2012 campaign. He was an accomplished wrestler at Bel Air High School and won a state championship in 1989 wrestling at 103. He went on to wrestle at Salisbury University and graduated in 1993 before beginning a teaching career that began at Bennett Middle before landing at Decatur.
The Decatur program has become a dominant force on the Eastern Shore and across the mid-Atlantic region in recent years and last year collected its 10th straight Bayside Conference championship. Under Martinek's watchful eye, the program is not expected to miss a beat moving forward. Martinek said this week the team prepares for the season practically all year long with offseason matches and endless weight room and teaching sessions.
"The kids are responding and working hard," he said. "It's going to be a little different and I have my own take on things, but we will continue to work hard. We've worked hard to get this program where it is and that is going to continue."
Martinek acknowledged taking over the program presents some challenges. Decatur lost several key wrestlers from last year's successful season, but with a bumper crop of young wrestlers ready to make their own mark on the program, the Seahawks shouldn't miss a beat.
"We have 44 kids in the high school program and another 40 in the Junior Seahawks, so we should have many good years to come," he said.
The top returning wrestlers for Decatur include Alford Hardy (132), Luke Bargar (220), Matt Meekins (126), Kaelan Patterson (145) and Andrew Borradaile (152). Top newcomers include Ethan Mariner (113), Ryan Kail (285) and Adam Bargar (195).
Martinek said his crew has high expectations with the season ready to open again.
"I hope to continue a 10-year winning streak in the conference and compete for the regional dual meet title," he said. "Then, if we could have five or six kids qualify for the individual state tournament, I would be happy."


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"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
What a Century!
Column by Jim Davies.
Exclusive to STR
It was the best and the worst century in human history, and it ends this month.
The previous one closed in 1912, a year best remembered for the sinking of the Titanic--a story that has been skillfully tuned to incite distrust of business and reliance on governments. It's a fable, which I demolish here. But the fable served as a prélude to what came next.
In 1913, the government of what was to become the most powerful empire in history enacted two separate but related ways to grab more of the wealth of this productive people: It founded a quasi-central bank and it apparently imposed a tax on personal earnings – after two earlier attempts had been foiled in each case. Until 1912, government had grabbed no more than 9% of what Americans produced; after 1913, those acts soon enabled it to steal over 45%.
The tax was "apparent" more than actual, because – fearful of not getting Amendment 16 ratified – the drafters worded it so loosely that no such legislation could be crafted. Instead, it was left to the judicial branch of the FedGov to enforce collection of the tax. But the bank was real enough, and very cunning: Instead of creating a wholly-owned subsidiary, the conspirators of Jekyll Island made America's central bank a "private" entity but chartered it so as to serve the same purpose. The banks loved it because they could earn interest on bogus "money," while the Feds loved it because they could spend fiat money to purchase votes without having at once to levy taxes – that being the purpose of all central banks.
The tax took a while to bite. At first the Supreme Court almost shot it down, rightly declaring Amendment 16 to have provided Congress with "no new taxing power" and that "income," the stuff being allegedly taxed, was defined the same way as in the 1909 Corporate Excise Acts – that is, nothing to do with wages or salaries. But then there were some membership changes, and although it still didn't reverse itself (and never has, since!), in 1927 it did uphold the conviction of a bootlegger called Sullivan as if there were an individual earnings tax. It has continued with that hypocrisy ever since, so fulfilling its true function as a toady. Because the low earnings of the 1930s didn't trigger wide participation, most people didn't feel its effect before 1942. An object lesson in how to boil a frog.
Today the "income tax" confiscates over a trillion dollars a year, or nearly half of all FedGov revenue, but its effect is much larger yet. With a lot of work, the 44 state governments that tax earnings could dissolve the link, but currently all of them except one depend entirely upon it for their own revenues; as in "enter here the number you wrote on IRS Form 1040, Line X." Further, the tax is used as an arithmetic base for the Social Security tax, fraudulently called "insurance contributions"--so, reckoning those as well, this unlegislated "income tax" is by far the largest heist in history. It's collected by the IRS, so making that agency the most hated in government (though the TSA has recently sprinted into second place), and which constitutes what Ron Paul has well called the "largest terrorist organization in the world." Its sinister power to probe into everyone's private financial affairs has placed the Gestapo and the Stasi – and even King George's "swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance"--in a less unfavorable historical light.
Fiat money, on the other hand, became useful immediately as a way to pay for WWI; and the "need" for the US to participate in that bloodbath was as part of an empire building program begun by Lincoln. Prior to 1861, America was a union of independent states (usually, even referred to in the plural, as in "The United States are . . . ."), but after secession had been prevented in 1865, it was an empire ruled from Washington, and government ambitions led to a huge grab of land from Spain in 1898. The opportunity to plunge in to Europe for further influence when it became clear that states there were busy destroying each other was much too tempting to miss. There being no popular support for intervention or for the taxes that would inevitably be needed, the Federal Reserve sprang to the rescue right on time with the magic of fiat money.
The outcome in 1919 all but guaranteed a replay, so the US intervened again in 1941 and this time got it "right" by displacing the British Pound with the US Dollar as the world's "reserve currency" by agreement in New Hampshire in 1944. Our high living standards of the past six decades have been the result, along with a vast extension of the American Empire. Like all emperors, ours has attracted wave upon wave of richly deserved hatred, producing a profound contrast with the goodwill that led Frenchmen (!) to contribute to the Liberty Statue in the late 19th Century.
For the human cost of the 20th Century wars, in the bloodiest of which the FedGov played a leading part, see here for mainly battle deaths and here for the often-associated "democide." Between those two sources, I suspect there's some overlap, but there's no avoiding the conclusion that those inter-government conflicts killed over 200 million people.
So here we are in 2012, after a century of massive theft and counterfeiting by the Feds, hated all over the world and poised on the very brink of economic collapse now that trillions of bogus dollars have become impossible to repay--and politically, so far impossible even to service with interest – for currently its new borrowings are annually four times greater than that interest even though its rate has been artificially depressed to 1.6%. The FedGov owes over $16 trillion, or nearly seven times its total annual revenue. The flood of bogus money that this massive debt represents has destroyed over 98.5% of the purchasing power of the 1912 dollar, while in the early 2000s it boosted house prices so fast that their apparent annual rise in "value" could exceed mortgage service costs and so trigger a runaway. Hence the bursting of the bubble and the current recession.
That's a sampling of the bad news, of the last 100 years, and it all results from government.
The century also brought an unprecedented flood of good news.
First, there's the magnificent advance and dispersal of knowledge and technical achievement that was fueled by the preceding two centuries of private thrift and investment, that has made life so much more agreeable, and which led to a huge increase in the size of the human family – from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 6.1 billion in 2000. Some view this as a threat; I view it as a delight, for to me, human life is good. Not only are more enjoying it, but we are also enjoying it for longer; worldwide life expectancy at birth doubled from 30 years in 1900 to 63 years a century later, and if free markets had been allowed to operate, a faster spread of wealth, good medicine and nutrition would have made the picture rosier yet.
Wherever markets have been allowed to function, the comforts and standards of life have risen almost beyond recognition. Just one century ago, there was little running hot water, no vacuum cleaners, few telephones and no radio or TV (never mind how the use of those has been corrupted). Refrigeration depended on ice. To travel, most needed a bicycle or train or horse-drawn carriage, and roads were infrequently paved. To cross an ocean or continent took days or weeks. Some will have family archives and photos of the era; check them out. Not many would choose to return to that lifestyle.
Moore & Simon's 2000 book It's Getting Better All the Time claims, "There has been more material progress in the United States in the 20th Century than in the entire world in all previous centuries combined" and proves it by detailing 100 "greatest trends" of the period. It explores health, wealth, poverty, children, labor, recreation, housing, transport, inventions, IT, education, safety, the environment, resource abundance, culture, sports, women, racism and government and provides overwhelming evidence of huge advances and improvement in each – even in that last item, on the premise that democracy is preferable to dictatorship. Not one of these improvements can be attributed to government. All of them spring from initiatives by persons and commercial ventures, and the authors' conclusion is incontestable.
Second, communications have changed from hierarchical to horizontal, and the effect is and will continue to be profound. Prior to around 1913, "news" was what a small class of editors decided would be passed downwards to readers, along with a set of opinions confined to a narrow, statist range. By 2012, most of what we learn each day comes from our peers; newspapers are about to go the way of the dinosaur (unthinkable, a century ago!), and most of what we know is found on the Internet, placed there by anyone with something to say. Even television is in trouble. The necessary task of filtration (discarding the rubbish) is now in the hands of each reader, where it should be, not those of an élite group of censors. Further, peer-to-peer communication is fast – with texting able to mobilize thousands in minutes; wherever the Arab Spring winds up leading, the technology that enabled it was breathtaking.
All this has shattered the old structure of central information control, and after government loses control of information, eventually it will lose control altogether. Personal electronic devices and the Internet form a far bigger change than Gutenberg's movable type, an invention that changed the course of history. We live in the middle of an amazing opportunity.
Third, one particular way in which that horizontal communication makes the rapid spread of ideas feasible is that of one-to-one exponential growth. The idea is quite old; the early Church used it to expand in its first three centuries, to grow from an obscure provincial religion to the largest in the Roman Empire. Friends told friends what they had believed and experienced. Today, that simple technique is now being used to spread an understanding that freedom is desirable, essential, and achievable; The On Line Freedom Academy is the first to make use of this technique to bring about a free society.
It could have been used a century ago, as I wrote here, but it wasn't – probably because the cost would have been considerable (instead of zero) and the speed of growth, far slower; for it would have been based on printed books instead of compact disks and on snail mail instead of the Internet. But it's in use now. Hence, government's days are numbered.
So, will the next century, 2013-2112, reverse the dreadful trend to ever-increasing government control over everyone? There are pessimists around who will disagree, but for the reasons above I say "yes." If the doomsters should prove right, I don't believe there will be a 2112, so they will not have the pleasure of celebrating their prescience even if they'd otherwise live until then; for if the long dark night of government is not ended, nuclear or bio-chem war will inevitably eradicate the human race. It may not begin with a major inter-government conflict, as Paul Bonneau well reasoned here recently, but rather from an escalation of some use of WMDs by suicidal fanatics, driven to distraction by the FedGov's drumbeat of worldwide intervention. It might, though; the greatest constant in the 10,000-year history of governments is that they relentlessly, repeatedly engage in war. There were over 100 wars in the 20th Century, more than one per year, all of them between governments; so a fair prediction is that if governments continue, wars will.
The century now ending has demonstrated convincingly that fiat money and high taxes don't work. The chaos governments have used them to create is so massive that it's seriously possible that a total economic collapse will happen of its own accord even before we market anarchists can bring the government era to a decent and relatively orderly end. This has been their best shot, and it has utterly failed. The initiative has now passed to us advocates of individual freedom; our adversaries' theories lie in tatters, their excuses wear thinner every day, and they have lost the ability to control who says what to whom – all this at the very time that we have gained that ability and can show to everyone how society will function without government. Humanity stands on the very cusp of a new and glorious era. Carpe diem!
Mr. Davies,
I certainly hope that your projections are somewhere near on the money; a 'transition' sometime before I wend my way off this 'mortal coil' would be great to see.
I've worked my way through The Online Freedom Academy, and I'm looking for a first candidate to 'sound out'. I understand the mathematics behind the idea (exponential growth), and I do think that eventually either this meme will catch fire or government will have to 'take the gloves off', quit pretending to be 'nice' and do their level best to crush it by brute force.
But I have a little trouble envisioning ~this~ Singularity coming to pass in the timeframe that you're envisioning. I have a number of highly intelligent friends, folks who aren't blinded by religion or other anti-intellectual concerns, and so far I haven't found anyone, other than my wife who's also a graduate of your program, who's in the least bit receptive to the possibility or viability of an existence without government. The idea of government's necessity has been so thoroughly ingrained in their heads that they seem completely unable to accept the possibility of civilized life without it, even when the whole argument is laid out logically and methodically for them.
And these are logical, methodical people who aren't on the dole or otherwise beholden to "Big Brother Uncle Sam". Seeing this reaction from almost everyone I know undercuts my belief that this meme can spread at the rate that's been postulated.
Personally, I'm not actively 'cramming' any ideas down my 17-year-old son's throat, but he does seem interrested when I discuss my views on government, and I think that 'nursing up' the next generation may be the only sure way to keep this spreading. Unfortunately, I think that's likely to throw the timeline back by a decade or so.
I hope not, and maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but I've learned over the years that pessimists are disappointed far less often than optimists.
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"I have a number of highly intelligent friends, folks who aren't blinded by religion or other anti-intellectual concerns, and so far I haven't found anyone, other than my wife who's also a graduate of your program, who's in the least bit receptive to the possibility or viability of an existence without government."
If you think about it, why should they be receptive to that idea? Just like you and me, they have things that they now take for granted. It usually takes a shock to force people to re-examine old assumptions - although there are a minority of people who can do that without the shock.
The good news is that a shock is on the way, and many individuals will be rethinking things. The bad news is that we might not survive it!
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Once we imagine how something can be we are very reluctant to let go of it or to even try to imagine another scenario. I do not believe it is so much intelligence as it is the ability to imagin how a thing may be. Should you try to creat a better image rather than to try and alter the intellectule icecicle there, something might happen. Just be careful the icecicle does not drop on your head though LOL
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Glad you could complete the course. Now you can think like Jim. I have been going over it for months and an havng a hard leap over the human part as well as any references to substantiate the remarks. I went through once and am in my second go around. I am rather independent in my thinking an something of a Missourian prove it to me. Hope you are successful?
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MJ: Nice post. I think the slowly boiled frog scenario may change rather quickly. When a man is unable to pay his bills or feed his family, his motivation to explore alternatives increases exponentially. He becomes VERY eager to avoid taxation, primarily. Until recently, like-minded people had trouble finding kindred spirits. The key is to cut off the money for the enemy. Everything depends on their ability to steal without serious resistance.
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An excellent summation with a powerful and resonating final paragraph, Jim! Carpe diem, indeed! :-)
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Brilliant, Jim, Effing brilliant. I hope to quote sections of this in future. You are right, It was the best and worst century. Keep up the fine work.
BTW, BUY silver. Old coins, bars, Silver Eagles. Sterling. And Google Chris Duane's fine video, "The Silver Bullet & The Silver Shield."
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Doug. when SHTF you can't eat gold when you are hungry and I seriously doubt that anyone with food will give you anything for a bar of gold. It is worthless piece of metal when the store shelves are cleaned out. I understand it takes 3 hours to clean out a grocery store of food and 3 weeks to restock. Now if supply lines are shut how exactly are you going to get food with all your gold and silver. Stock up on toilet paper, cigaretts, whiskey, chocolated. these are good barter items along with toothpaste, cologone, lipstick. These elementl help with moral and help us keep out humanity about ourselves during TEOTWAWKI.
Good luck with your gold and silver.
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Economics never made sense to me and I wish I understood what was written because most of you seem to really duderstand what JD is talking about. I have tried to read economic, but it is so boring I can't get past the first chapter. I realize it is a very important aspect of life but I just don't get it.
Noticed a poll recently that said LEO's w ould not enforce a gun confiscation because they are not trained for that and it goes against the principles of "Protect and Serve" Older Military said no also because the Constitution does not say make war on the American people if the misbehave. I guess this is the gourp Jehovah [o]bama was talking about, the civilian army.
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This article is more than 1 year old
HP bulks up software for hybrid infrastructures
Two ways lens for LOBs and IT
HP has revved its BSM (Business Service Management) product - software which, HP says, provides a two-way lens through which line-of-business (LOB) managers and IT staff can each understand the other's view of business service priorities and IT infrastructures supporting those services.
In the decades-long struggle to align IT with business needs, HP reckons BSM 9.0 is a major step forward.
Richard Foden, UK and Ireland Marketing Director for HP Software and Solutions, says the alignment has become more complex as businesses use various combinations of in-house data centres, physical and virtualised infrastructures, private and public clouds, hybrid delivery models.
The underlying infrastructure supporting LOB applications has become and is still becoming more complex, making it more and more difficult for silo'd IT staff managing specific bits of infrastructure to understand where their element fits into the business service. It also makes it harder for LOB managers to appreciate that the storage holding their data is actually managed by an outsourced sysadm looking after a virtualised block access SAN, which is running as virtual storage appliances in a blade server complex but which might move to an off-premise public cloud depending upon the data centre load.
What currently happens when a business app fails or has degraded service is that LOB people contact the Help Desk and/or IT and talk business language, as in: "The supply chain parts ordering service is running slow." The IT techs talk techy language; "Oh, could that be due to the updated code in the HP BladeCentre virtualised Ethernet switch?" and the two sides simply don't connect. The IT people don't know how to prioritise problems, and often don't pay attention first to the ones with the most impact on the business.
BSM 9.0 aims to help resolve this impasse, bridge the gap, by making each side, LOB and IT, understand each other's world view and be able to talk a similar language, so that LOB people, help desk people and data centre people all have same window into the business universe.
What BSM 9.0 does is to collect and store a large set of infrastructure statistics and information and tie these to business applications in a run time service model. We can view this as business application metadata and it's gathered by a variety of agent and agentless instrumentation methods, such as AppIQ for storage.
BSM then applies a top-down mapping to connect LOB applications to this. The data is presented in a dashboard and includes service level agreements.
LOB staff see it from the top down and IT staff see it from the bottom up; they each have their own lens looking at the same set of data presented in an appropriate way to them.
BSM already has a dashboard facility; the new release adds the cross-element modelling to enable BSM to cover the widespread of IT models now appearing, the virtualised servers, networking and storage, the in-house and outsourced IT, the private and public clouds.
It establishes the visibility of business-level service agreements to data centre people. They'll understand business-level priorities and appreciate that, for example, testing of business-level apps better be concerned with their criticality and not degrade their service levels.
BSM 9.0 also improves outage or event resolution. HP says it provides" automation of the entire event resolution process to dramatically reduce troubleshooting costs, lower mean time to repair and drive productivity gains. [It] eliminates redundant events and automates the process … using run-book automation tools."
The HP BSM 9.0 portfolio includes Business Availability Center 9.0 (BAC), Operations Manager i 9.0 (OMi) and Network Management Center (NMC) 9.0. ®


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Live dealer conversation stalled in courts
After years of a stalemate with the state over live dealers at Harrah's Casino, the election of Gov. Beverly Perdue signaled new hope for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians that an agreement finally could be reached.
Perdue had signaled a willingness to reopen talks about allowing live dealers, in addition to the electronic games now offered at Harrah's. But the state's banned video gambling industry has other ideas.
A lawsuit filed by a video gaming firm argues the governor does not have the right to negotiate gambling compacts with the Cherokee, alleging that the power lies only with the General Assembly.
"The approval of compacts between the State of North Carolina and other sovereign entities, including the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, is a core legislative function; therefore, by negotiating and executing the Compact and amendments thereto Governors Hunt and Easley violated the state constitution's 'separation of power' clause," states the complaint filed by New Vemco Music Co. in Wake County Superior Court in February.
It's the second such case filed by New Vemco. Last year, a lawsuit claimed the state didn't have the right to allow video gambling in Cherokee while banning it everywhere else. The company has appealed to the Supreme Court, which hasn't yet decided whether to review the case.
Ralph Amik, New Vemco's owner, pledged to keep fighting for to restore the outlawed video poker industry in the state.
Related Items
"We may wind up taking it to the Supreme Court to do it, but we are going to win," Amik said. "I don't care what the Cherokees do. I really and truly don't, but we were in business first. They can't give it to one and not the other."
Together the two cases have been seen as an effort to force the state to lift its ban on video gaming, which it prohibited in 2007, by hamstringing the process of expanding gaming on the Qualla Boundary.
Officials in the governor's office have acknowledged that the cases have stalled negotiations over live gaming at Harrah's Cherokee Casino.
"The governor has always welcomed that dialogue with the Cherokee, but the fact that there are two legal cases pending in court certainly affects her ability to carry those discussions forward," said Chrissy Pearson, Gov. Perdue's press secretary.
Pearson said the governor would wait until the cases are resolved to move forward with the live dealer discussion.
"The crux is that both cases do need to go through the courts so we can know what precedents will be set before we proceed any further," Pearson said.
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Principal Chief Michell Hicks would not comment on the status of the live dealer discussion or the lawsuits, citing a policy against discussing "pending lawsuits or compact negotiations with the state" with the media.


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"How to Be a Great Member Missionary," Ensign, Aug. 2007, 50–55
How to Be a Great Member Missionary
Now that missionary work centers in wards and branches, what can members do to be better missionaries? Here are some ideas from Latter-day Saints in British Columbia, Canada.
Sister Lena Ma might be the best missionary in the world. At least that's the assessment of Anthony Middleton, president of the Canada Vancouver Mission. His opinion is a little surprising, considering that Sister Ma isn't one of his full-time missionaries and speaks Mandarin in English-speaking British Columbia. And yet each year at least two people she introduces to the gospel join the Church.
President Middleton recognizes that British Columbia has not been the most fertile ground in the world for converts for quite some time. But things are changing. Because of Sister Ma and other members like her, President Middleton says the number of investigators in that mission requesting baptism and confirmation has increased significantly. With missionary work receiving high-priority attention from their priesthood leaders, the Latter-day Saints of British Columbia are truly becoming member missionaries. And the lessons they are learning can be used by missionary-minded members anywhere in the world.
The Vancouver mission has struggled for years to increase the number of people who join the Church. Collin Van Horne, president of the Nanaimo British Columbia Stake, explains that in British Columbia "there is an unspoken understanding that religion is not a topic for discussion. In Canada, the phrase is 'I'm all right, Jack.'" For a long time that culture left missionary work to the full-time missionaries, who spent most of their time tracting. Unfortunately, tracting is not a very productive way to find people interested in the gospel.
And so a couple of years ago, at the encouragement of General Authorities, the mission president and the stake presidents in British Columbia made some changes. Most of these changes involve helping members be better inviters.
Conduct Meetinghouse Tours
One of the changes the stake presidents made was adopting and adapting the successful way missionary work is done in nearby Tacoma, Washington. The missionaries there immediately invite interested contacts to the nearest meetinghouse for a tour. In explaining the Church's facilities and programs, the missionaries also teach about the Restoration. The tour finishes in the chapel or near a painting of the First Vision, where the missionaries bear testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and invite the guests to join them in prayer.
In British Columbia, meetinghouse tours are now part of a comprehensive missionary effort that encourages members—not just full-time missionaries—to invite their acquaintances on a tour. Vancouver mission records show that if seven people are invited to a meetinghouse tour, ideally with a member at their side, one will be baptized and confirmed.
"What we are trying to achieve through the course of the tour," President Middleton says, "is to have a nonmember think, 'You know, I'd feel very comfortable being a member of this church. It's got something for me.'"
Many new members in British Columbia remember their first visit to a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse and feeling the Spirit there. Malcolm Coffill of the Port Alberni Ward, Nanaimo British Columbia Stake, joined the Church in August 2005 after being introduced to the gospel by his neighbors, Tom and Marla Housholder. Brother Coffill says that what convinced him to join the Church was "the wonderful feeling I felt the first time I stepped into that beautiful building and the friendly welcome I got."
Sister Jill Berrett, a full-time missionary in the Vancouver mission, tells of an investigator who toured the meetinghouse at the invitation of her 18-year-old friend. "While she was on the tour she became so excited she wanted to take the lessons right away. Her friend gave her a Book of Mormon, and another friend invited her to Young Women camp. She felt so loved and so involved that she began referring to the ward as 'her ward' even before she was baptized."
Of course, not everyone who comes to an LDS meetinghouse immediately feels the Spirit. But many come away wanting to know more about the Church.
Learn from Successful Member Missionaries
Sister Ma has been inviting people to the Lord's house for 10 years. More than 20 of those who have come have accepted the gospel. "I've never seen Sister Ma at a Church function without a nonmember in tow," President Middleton says. And she always lets people know what to expect before their first visit.
Case in point: Ruby. Lena Ma met Ruby at the library and struck up a conversation. "I asked Ruby what she usually does on Sunday," Sister Ma says. "I asked about her son, if there was anything in her church for him. I then explained about our Primary organization and invited her to come and see for herself. She came and then attended some more. She started the missionary lessons yesterday."
Sonny and Shaina Sala, who recently moved from the Salt Spring Island Branch in British Columbia to the Cardston Eighth Ward in Alberta, have adopted much the same approach as Sister Ma. Sonny and Shaina have talked to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of acquaintances and strangers about the gospel. "When we meet someone," Shaina says, "right away, we ask, 'Do you go to church in the area? We go to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Have you heard of it?'
"We do try to have some fun with it. The other day, Sonny told me to go say hi to a man because he looked like a former member of our branch. When I walked up to him, I discovered that Sonny was teasing me. The man was a stranger. There was this awkward moment, and then I just said, 'You look like a friend I once knew. He was a member of my church. Have you ever heard of the Mormon Church?' It turns out he used to be a member. We got into a discussion about faith, and I invited him to church. And then he said, 'You know, I just got out of the hospital, and here you are, this angel, inviting me back to church.' If I hadn't opened my mouth, I wouldn't have known he'd been in the hospital and needed to reconnect with the Church."
"When you turn yourself over to the Lord," Sonny says, "He'll put people in your path." He tells of backing up his motor home one day and ending up in a ditch. He called for a tow truck, and the Spirit prompted him to speak to the driver about the gospel. "I told him, 'The Lord put me in this ditch so I could meet you.' He laughed, and we talked. It turns out his grandmother was a Mormon at one time. He wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. We try to keep copies nearby, and I was happy to give him one."
Develop Ward and Family Mission Plans
Sister Ma and the Salas have made missionary work a natural part of meeting people each day. Some of us, however, find the idea of talking to others about the gospel intimidating. We need a little help to get started. That's when a ward or branch mission plan comes in handy.
At a stake presidents' coordinating council soon after President Middleton became mission president, the stake presidents in British Columbia discussed their stake mission plans and developed some guidelines for ward and branch plans, as Preach My Gospel recommends. The assumption is that those who author their own mission plan will be motivated to make the plan work. The stake presidents decided on four principles each ward and branch in their stakes should use to build its plan:
The plan should involve every member, not just the ward or branch mission leader.
It should have measurable goals.
It should invite families to create their own mission plans.
It should be simple.
Most wards and branches in British Columbia have now developed their own mission plans. The plans are so simple they can be placed on a small card and attached to a refrigerator. Some wards, like the Victoria Second Ward, have taken the next step. Bishop Frank Hitchmough and the ward mission leader, Michael Mulholland, have met with the families in the ward and helped them develop their own family mission plans. The plans consist of goals and approaches that each family decides work best for them.
Take Charge
Brother Mulholland makes it clear that the key to successful missionary work is not just a workable plan. "It's not so much the plan as who is taking charge," he says. "Having a stake presidency like President Keyes and his counselors committed to missionary work is what makes plans work. They give direction to the bishops, and when the bishops make missionary work a high priority, the work gets done."
President Randy Keyes of the Victoria British Columbia Stake tells how the priesthood leaders in British Columbia were asked by their Area Seventies to consider the priority they placed on missionary work. For many wards and branches, it was somewhat down the list. The priesthood leaders in British Columbia now rank it second only to taking care of the youth.
In wards where member missionary work is successful, bishops emphasize it in priesthood executive committee (PEC), ward council, and priesthood and Relief Society meetings. They delegate assignments and with the ward leadership track the progress of investigators and less-active members.
One of the more successful aspects of many ward mission plans is a member missionary class to which the bishop calls six or eight members at a time. A ward or full-time missionary teaches the class. The text is Preach My Gospel, and topics include the doctrine behind missionary work, self-motivation, and practical approaches. Class members enjoy sharing personal missionary experiences and role-playing.
Ultimately, missionary work rests on the shoulders of the individual member. Every member needs to decide how he or she can best share the gospel—then do it.
Benjamin and Robin Orrego found what works for their family and then made it part of their family missionary effort even before they were asked to create a plan. They invite people to their home for "cottage meetings" at which they have inspiring, though not necessarily LDS, discussions. Games and food are part of the evening. The Orregos also hand out Church movies and literature.
They recognize, however, that being part of an organized, unified missionary effort is more effective than individual effort alone, and so they have made inviting three people to a meetinghouse tour each year part of their family plan. That goal, or a variation of it, is part of ward and family plans throughout British Columbia. The idea began with the president of the Abbotsford British Columbia Stake, Paul Christensen, and spread quickly.
Be Creative, Naturally
President Christensen has asked his stake members to consider some other ideas as well. Each month, the stake presidency suggests a different group of people members could consider for invitations, such as professionals, co-workers, or neighbors. He also wants the full-time missionaries to attend not only PEC and ward council but also auxiliary meetings. He attends missionary district meetings and zone conferences, where he emphasizes that the missionaries' role is to teach and the role of the members is to invite. Members support the missionaries and testify when the opportunity arises; occasionally, they may even be able to share gospel principles. But mostly, they invite others to "come and see" (John 1:39, 46).
One of his most creative ideas is to involve members of other faiths in teaching Church members skills they don't have. "We recently had a single adult conference with a lot of seminars. The typical attitude is: Who do we know in the area who is a plumber? Who is a mechanic? I said, 'Let's not have any members teaching the seminars. Go get a plumber in the community. Go find a handyman. Have them come. Give them a chapel tour so they understand who we are.' We need to be outward looking."
The Victoria stake has taken that outward look to heart for a number of years. In 1978 Sandra Gill started a community genealogy society that first met in her basement. She still attends the society's meetings and teaches classes, but most of her time is spent now at the family history center in the stake meetinghouse. With her are 60 other staff members, most of whom are nonmembers. The center is open about 45 hours a week, and some 70 percent of its patrons are not members of the Church.
Like Sister Gill, Tom and Marla Housholder have found creative ways to use their interests and circumstances to share the gospel. Brother and Sister Housholder own a small bed-and-breakfast lodge in Port Alberni. They make sure that the Church magazines are within easy reach in their lobby and that each guest room has a Bible and a Book of Mormon. In the three years they've operated the lodge, they've "lost" more than 30 copies of the Book of Mormon and are hoping to lose some more. They also host a music festival and a crèche display at Christmastime. One of the choirs is from the Port Alberni Ward, where Tom Housholder serves as bishop.
Be Where the Spirit Is
President Christensen of the Abbotsford stake is a big believer in the divine power that attends the physical presence of LDS temples. That's one of the reasons he is so excited about the temple announced in June 2006 for Vancouver. "I don't think we're getting a temple because we're particularly righteous," he says. "I think we're getting a temple because we need it to share the gospel. We need the light it brings."
A surprising number of people in British Columbia have joined the Church because of feelings they had on temple grounds. "I'll never forget the feeling I had when I walked through the gates of Temple Square in Salt Lake City," Julie Keyes of the Victoria stake says. "It felt like I was walking from darkness into light." She was impressed by the whole experience—the people she met, the testimony of Joseph Smith, the focus on Jesus Christ. "I thought, 'I've got to find out more about this.'" When she returned home to British Columbia, she called the local LDS meetinghouse and asked to meet with the missionaries.
Sister Keyes, who is now married to the president of the Victoria stake, was at the temple grounds because a member of the Church invited her to come, and she was surprised by the warmth she felt from the members there. In fact, if one common theme characterizes almost every story converts share in British Columbia, it is this: light, joy, and genuine friendliness emanate from members of the Church. Being with members and feeling the Spirit are what motivate them to learn more.
That seems to be the pattern the members of the Church in British Columbia are finding most successful. They're learning that it's not they who convert people; it's the Lord. They just need to live the gospel, love people, and invite them to be anyplace—the meetinghouse, Church activities, members' homes, temple grounds—where the Spirit is. The most experienced member missionaries don't worry if people reject their invitations. These members just keep inviting. The missionaries keep teaching. And the Lord keeps blessing His children with testimonies borne of His Spirit.
Do You Have a Story or Approach to Share?
Members in British Columbia, Canada, have developed a variety of ways to invite others to learn about the gospel. If you have a way that has proved successful for you, we'd like to know about it so we can share it with other readers of the Ensign. Please e-mail your idea to email@example.com or send it to:
Missionary Ideas, Ensign
50 E. North Temple St., Rm. 2420
Salt Lake City, UT 84150-3220 USA


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The end of the federal shutdown means boats will be back out on the Bering Sea to fish for king crab. Loggers are being allowed back into national forests in Oregon. And barriers keeping nature lovers out of national parks across the country have been removed.
Crews on about 80 boats have been sitting out the multimillion-dollar harvest of red king crab because federal managers who assign fishing quotas were among workers furloughed during the government's partial shutdown. They're relieved that they'll soon be able to start their harvest, bringing back an industry that was one of many private sectors of the economy stalled around the country by the bickering in Washington.
"I'm glad the madness has ended," said Capt. Keith Colburn, a regular on Discovery Channel's popular reality show "Deadliest Catch."
Life started to return to normal as the federal government sprang back to life after the 16-day partial shutdown that came to a close after the House and Senate voted late Wednesday to end it. Even the popular panda cam at the National Zoo was back online, though the zoo itself won't reopen until Friday. Federal workers who were furloughed or worked without pay during the shutdown will get back pay in their next paychecks, which for most employees come Oct. 29.
National parks removed barriers and welcomed visitors who had previously been turned away. The Twitter feed of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state posted a picture of the 14,411-foot mountain backed by blue skies, with the message "What a beautiful morning to welcome us back to Mount Rainier! Park gates are now open."
National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis said all 401 national park units — including landmarks such the Liberty Bell and Yellowstone — reopened Thursday.
Visitors from around the world flocked to Yosemite National Park to see such famous sites as El Capitan and Half Dome after weeks of closure brought local economies to a near standstill.
U.S. & World
More than 20,000 National Park Service employees had been among the 800,000 federal workers sent home at the peak of the shutdown.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park spokeswoman Dana Soehn said that returning employees faced a backlog of work, particularly emails from people applying for permits, and other requests.
"All of those still required response now that we're back to work," said Soehn, adding that she realizes there could be another shutdown in the next few months.
"That is not a prospect that anyone is looking forward to," she said.
At the World War II Memorial, which became a flash point of anger and blame over the government shutdown, the memorial honoring more than 400,000 who died was calm and peaceful again. The memorial's fountains were turned back on, and there were no signs of the barricades that had limited access to the site during the shutdown.
The U.S. Forest Service started lifting a logging ban on national forests. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services restarted the computerized system used to verify the legal status of workers. Boat trips resumed to Alcatraz, the former federal prison in San Francisco Bay, with 1,600 tickets snapped up by tourists in the first hour of business.
Among the many sites reopening in Washington were the Smithsonian Institution's museums, which lost about $2.8 million in revenue during the shutdown, according to Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is tackling backlogs in several of its programs as furloughed workers return.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan welcomed back workers in a video message posted on the agency's website.
"You are better than what we saw in Washington over the past few weeks," he told them. "And I want you to know that your work here at HUD is valued. It's important. It's necessary."
The Defense Department called back about 7,000 furloughed civilians. In an open letter to the workforce, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the department still faces budget uncertainty as Congress struggles to pass a 2014 spending bill and deal with automatic budget cuts. Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale said the department lost at least $600 million worth of productivity during the four days that civilians were furloughed.
In Cincinnati, Renee Yankey, a government alcohol and tobacco tax specialist, was sleep-deprived after staying up late to watch news of the shutdown-ending deal, but otherwise glad to be back at work with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
"I can tell that the alcohol industry missed us," Yankey said. "The first thing I hear is 'I'm so glad I got a person on the phone!'"
Patrice Roberts, who works for Homeland Security, said she wasn't prepared for the emotional lows of the past 16 days.
"It's just frustrating having that kind of control over your life and just having it taken away from me," said Roberts, who is expecting another shutdown in January. "I'll be better prepared next time."


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Not yet confirmed, but we'll be checking up on this. We were given the heads'-up on this one by Stacy McCain (@rsmccain, The Other McCain), who is apparently (I think) on the scene of PA-12.
[UPDATE] Preliminary checking suggests false alarm, more's the pity. Ach, well.
[ANOTHER UPDATE] Just had more on this come on in. The DCCC (not, strictly speaking, a Critz one) ad was pulled, subject to their proof that Burns really does support the Fair Tax (which he does not, in fact, do).


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A Texas pastor encouraged his Hispanic congregation earlier this month to increase their Bible reading time, saying that Bible illiteracy is not only a common issue among Christians in general, but also prevalent in the Latino community.
The Rev. Dr. Jose Daniel Montañez's efforts are part of the "Month of the Bible" campaign, or ¡Saborea la Biblia! plan, an initiative launched by The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) and the American Bible Society to fight Bible illiteracy among Hispanics.
"I heard about the 'Hispanic America: Faith, Values and Priorities' study from the American Bible Society and realized that some of the statistics about Hispanics not engaging with the Bible resounded clearly and accurately in what I was seeing in my local congregation," Montañez said.
According to the study conducted by Barna Hispanics, 87 percent of Hispanics own a Bible, but only eight percent read it regularly or allow it to inform their worldview, but Montañez plans to do his part to lower that statistic.
"I heard about what American Bible Society was doing to help with the ¡Saborea la Biblia! plan and materials and I thought this was a great opportunity to have the congregation focus on more engagement with the Bible. We have also spread the word and helped about eight other churches in the San Antonio area to join ¡Saborea la Biblia!," said Montañez, pastor of Central Church of God in San Antonio, Texas.
To do his part, Montañez said his congregation is engaged in several activities while he uses the resources provided by campaign organizers to enhance his sermons this month. In addition, both the NHCLC and American Bible Society have created online downloadable Bible literacy resources, available at no cost to participating churches, including a pastor's packet, coordinator's manual, daily Bible reading planner, and Bible bookmarks, available in Spanish.
"We are also using the seven day devotional. I first shared this with the leadership team during the first week of the month, then the leadership team shared this with their leaders and now during the third week, it is being shared with the entire congregation," Montañez said.
The initiative, which kicked off for the first time this year in September, is a three-year campaign that the president of the NHCLC, Samuel Rodriguez, hopes will fight against Biblical illiteracy that "threatens to destroy the principles and values on which our great nation was founded."
Executive Director of Multi-Language Ministries for American Bible Society, the Rev. Dr. Emilio A. Reyes, also shares the same sentiment and says there are numerous Hispanic churches and pastors who have recognized the need to further Bible engagement in their communities.
"American Bible Society's three-year partnership with NHCLC is just getting started and we are looking forward to continuing our efforts in reaching this community. The Bible has so many answers to life's questions and our hope is that Hispanics will allow the Bible to inform their worldviews," Reyes said.


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A magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurred on January 12, 2010, at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with major impact to the region and its citizens. Haiti (on the west) and the Dominican Republic (on the east) share the island of Hispaniola. Port-au-Prince is located at the east end of the northern shore of Haiti's southern peninsula. This view of the topography of the island shows the fault apparently responsible for the earthquake as a prominent linear landform immediately southwest of the city and as a series of fault traces that extend westward along the full length of the southern peninsula. This fault was already well known and is called the Enriquillo fault.
The Enriquillo fault generally moves left-laterally (horizontally, with features across the fault shifting to the left when the fault breaks in an earthquake), but vertical movements occur along the fault where irregularities in the fault line cause local compression or extension of the earth. Meanwhile, movements of the topography at the Earth's surface can falsely appear to be vertical where mountain slopes are cut and misaligned by horizontal shifts of the fault. Additionally, differing erosion rates on the two sides of the fault, due to the juxtapositioning of differing rock types by the fault, can give the appearance of vertical offsets of the current topographic surface. All of these real and apparent horizontal and vertical offsets of the topographic surface may (and likely do) occur here, making the fault easily observed in the topographic data.
The elevation data used in this image were produced by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), flown aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000. SRTM acquired elevation measurements for nearly all of Earth's landmass between 60 degrees North and 56 degrees South latitudes. For many areas of the world, SRTM data provide the first detailed three-dimensional observation of landforms at regional scales. The mission was a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), and the German and Italian space agencies. It was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.
View Area: 388 by 735 kilometers (240 by 455 miles)Location: 19 degrees North latitude, 71 degrees West longitudeOrientation: North to the topSRTM Data Acquired: February 2000